Ok people, most of you know I love a good adventure race, knee deep in mud and frozen water. I also love a good mountain. Nothing more refreshing than being thrown over a two foot cornice to dig an avalanche pit in a Scottish blizzard :-) Oh yeah baby! But, there is a sensible side to me that loves to cook, to eat healthy. I'm no saint; yes I love a beef pattie slapped between a bun from a well known fast food outlet beginning with Mmmmmmmmm but only on the odd occasion, usually when I'm on the hoof. No I don't ride horses. Also, where would Wednesday night be without a curry takeaway. Well still between Tuesday and Thursday I guess but it is my weakness on what is generally a healthy eating week.
Every January, I go extreme alas, no change there. I have this diet stricter than my primary school teacher that sellotaped me to my chair..those were the days. You do that now and she's be called a kiddy fiddling, bullying, child abusing masochistic pervert, stripped of her job, house, splashed all over the Sunday rag and slammed up for six months with manic depressive self harming lesbian. Anyway, it clearly did me no harm. Anyone want to hit my willy with a stinging nettle?
Now where was I, oh yeah my detox. Seriously, this shit works. I eat a diet at of fish, brown rice, fruit, nuts, pulses, goats cheese and that's about it. No caffeine, no wheat, no dairy, no meat although I do cheat and eat chicken sometimes, no sugar, no refined foods, NO F***ING ALCOHOL grrrr. Basically if hasn't just been dug up (no I don't do necrophilia), picked, or caught I generally try to avoid it. Lemon tea, cold shower, fruit smoothie and oats with soya milk to start the day. Tuna salad for lunch, Salmon with jackpot or brown rice for tea with a crumble of goats cheese and some leeks to jazz it up. You get the picture.
Now it can get boring, tedious, damn right monotonous at times but you have to stay strong. You have to imagine you are eating a raw steak off a naked lady. Use some imagination, what ever floats your boat and tickles your testicles or niggles your noona for the ladies.
After a few weeks, combined with a healthy sleep pattern, exercise and relaxation you feel amazing. Truly. Alive and alert like a new person, all ready to "TOX" for the next eleven months. Yeah!
If you fancy it, give it a go. As my last blog, I'll be posting some of my kitchen dishes and ideas for you to have a go at. You don't have to follow them, just maybe take a little inspiration from them and tweak them to make them you own.
Have fun in the kitchen, it's not a place for chores. It a place to express yourself, have some fun and promote your health and happiness for 2012. Hope you enjoy my dishes or those that come from your own imagination. Be lucky x
Friday 30 December 2011
Foil steamed salmon with spiced butternut squash, saute peppers and brown rice
Foil steamed salmon with spiced butternut squash, sauté
peppers and brown rice
Serves two, allow 1 hour from chopping board to plate.
What you need:
Ø Two fresh salmon fillets, skinned and pin boned
Ø Half a medium sized butternut squash
Ø Three bell peppers, red, yellow, orange…forget green!
Ø 1 Medium Leek
Ø 1 Lemon
Ø 1 Small onion
Ø Small handful of fresh dill
Ø Two garlic cloves
Ø Tilda Butternut squash 2 minute brown rice (or cook your own)
Ø Good few glugs of olive oil
Ø Salt and pepper
Ø About a level teaspoon of mild curry power
Ø Half a medium glass of white wine or vegetable stock
Ø Tin Foil
What to do:
1. Preheat to oven to 190c or 170c for a fan assisted jobbie
2. Peel and de-seed the butternut squash and cut into equal chunks about the size of a sugar cube. Place in a roasting tin.
3. Glug olive oil over the butternut, don’t be shy. Make sure it’s all coated the season with salt and pepper and even sprinkle over the curry powder then toss around the roasting tin
4. Peel and slice the two garlic cloves lengthways and lay over the butternut
5. Place in the hot over for 35 minutes and toss around once or twice whilst cooking
6. Next, trim the leeks then half lengthways and slice as fine as you can…watch those fingers!
7. Cut four slices off the lemon, reserving the rest and place on the leeks
8. Tear the dill into bits and place on the leeks leaving a few sprigs for garnish
9. Place the fish on the leeks and season well with salt and pepper
10. Pull off a strip of tin foil double arms length. Fold together, end to and, then fold in half again. Tightly fold three sides over to form a sort of envelope making sure you leave one side open. This should form a double skinned pocket.
11. Open up the pocket carefully and place in the leeks, lemon, dill, salmon then add the wine or stock and then fold over and seal this end. The parcel should now be completely sealed. Don’t tighten parcel too much as the air inside needs to expand when cooking to steam the fish.
12. Once the butternut squash has been in the over for 35 minutes, move it over to one half of the roasting tin and add the salmon parcel on the other. Continue cooking for a further 20 – 25 minutes for just cooked pink, moist and delicious salmon
13. In the mean time, cut and slice the onions and the bell peppers
14. 8 minutes before the salmon is ready, sauté the onions in some olive oil for three minutes then add the peppers for a further five. Stir and season.
15. The Tilda rice can be nuked for 2 minutes. I know this is not best treatment for rice but it’s quick, convenient and pretty tasty to be fair.
16. To bring it all together serve the rice to one side, in a mould shape if you want to chef it up.
17. Place the peppers on the other side and the butternut squash cubes in the middle.
18. Cut open the foil bag carefully from the top and very carefully fish slice out the salmon, leeks and lemon and place on top of the peppers.
19. The dress, you can add a balsamic and olive oil rocket salad and a sprig of dill either on the fish or the rice. Enjoy!!
Brought to you by SMALL WONDERS
Thursday 8 December 2011
Goal Posts forever moving, forever getting smaller, forever getting harder to hit the target
I love it when crazy shit happens; especially when I’m controlling it, promoting it, embracing it with open arms. Pushing the boundaries mentally, physically without emotion. Striving for the next hit of pain, torture and endurance.
The trait of a masochist, mind set of a lunatic, body of a gently ageing 42 year old Essex boy that still has time on his hands before his body says “f**k right off chap”!
And why not, someone give me a reason? I love life and I love to live. I don’t like to conform to the norm, I’ll never ever be a member of the pipe and slippers brigade. Sometimes, well most times I need to release my inner energy on some crazy shit mountains, insane adventure race , martial arts or just something that’ll give me a buzz. It’s not adrenalin seeking, it’s called “Lust for Life”.
It is a fact the more you do, the fitter you feel, the more you want to do. If you do a 6 mile run, next you want to do a six mile run in the mud, then you want to do a six mile run in mud, snow and freezing water , then you want to do a six mile run in mud, snow, freezing water in the dark! It just goes on, where does it stop.
I know when I will stop: 1) When I’ve run the Four Desert Ultra Marathon series and 2) Summited Everest. Then, and only then will I feel I have fulfilled my ambitions, able to die a happy man knowing I have lived, loved, provided and achieved.
So lot’s of build up stuff already completed, mountains around the world, marathons, lots of adventure races, Tough Guy…that’s worth a mention alone. More to come of course, loads of adventure races for 2012, ice climbing, Alps, Himalayas, endurance hikes like Jurrasic Coast and Hadrians Wall, marathons, ultra marathons, Coast 2 Coasts and FFS Tough Guy again in January. Looking forward to hypothermia once again L like a priest looks forward to a visit from the child protection agency. It’s all very basic human nature to me, life, well life…..
“Life is like a box of fireworks ……….Well that’s all I wanted to say about that…..”
Doing Something Crazy
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